Mum and Dad (2008) REVIEW

KAYLEIGH MARIE EDWARDS is a freelance writer and entertainer based in South Wales. She has been published in several anthologies, and specialises mostly in comedy/horror. She has had two theatre plays staged, and is working on that pesky first novel. She likes cheese, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the writing. Her blog is kayofthedead.wordpress.com

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KAYLEIGH MARIE EDWARDS takes a look at the gory, overlooked British horror Mum and Dad (2008)
Mum and Dad, made in 2008, is not for the faint of heart.
It’s a low-budget, British horror movie, but which sub-category of horror is it most suited to?
It’s most definitely a part of the ‘realism’ genre, which makes it all that more horrifying because there is absolutely no escape for the horrific nature of the ‘family’.
There is no supernatural element to distract you from the fact that this could happen to anyone, including you. For that reason, it invokes your empathy in ways that you can only wish it wouldn’t.

Once you’ve seen ‘Mum and Dad’, there’s no going back.

Once you’ve seen this film, there’s no going back. It’s a part of you, a deep and sordid part, that refuses to leave you, and it’s there forever.
It’s the story of a ‘family’, who on the surface probably appear quite normal until they recruit (kidnap) their newest ‘daughter’, Lena (Olga Fedori). The family thrive on incest, torturous acts that bring various types of sordid satisfaction for the one inflicting the pain, and just when you think it can’t get more twisted, it does.
When Lena becomes victim to the torture, the only way to reduce the pain is to embrace it, which brings about the beginning of the most twisted, but uncomfortably understandable, type of ‘bonding’ between her and ‘mother’.
This, in turn, sparks off jealousy amongst the other siblings, because god forbid, there be a favourite, especially when it’s the new girl in town.
There seems to be no escape, and with that realisation, there is also no hope, and that really is the crux of the terror, and the genius, of this film. The horror thrives on the lack of options. This isn’t a movie where you roll your eyes at the protagonist for making stupid decision when they could just run out of the front door – it’s a movie in which you, the viewer, are trapped with her and have absolutely no idea what to do.
It is horror in it’s purest and truest form, and be warned, after watching it, you will most definitely need a young priest and an old priest to purge your soul of what you have just endured.